Korea is an extremely lucrative gaming market- but not for dedicated game consoles or handhelds. The market thrives on the games as services model, with titles like Starcraft or League of Legends, and MMORPGs like Lineage ruling the roost there. It should, therefore, come as no surprise to anybody that Nintendo’s Korean branch has struggled to crack the market- and that that is now taking its toll on the company workforce, as the company’s Korean subsidiary is laying off as many as 80% of its employees.
That represents a reduction of employees from over 60 to just 10- and according to a source, Nintendo of Korea is looking to relocate to an office to outside of Seoul. However, the upper management seems to be insulated from all these changes, as Fukuda Hiroyuki will remain as CEO of Nintendo of Korea.
With the launch of the Nintendo NX coming up, as well as several high profile games like Pokemon Sun and Moon and The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo is doubtless desperate to get its Korean strategy in place in time- but what that will entail, it remains to be seen.
